


Boy of Bones and Dragons

by tabulasrasas



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Dragons, F/M, Love, Soul-Searching, Zuko (Avatar)-centric, soul mates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-06
Updated: 2020-11-06
Packaged: 2021-03-08 23:28:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27415003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tabulasrasas/pseuds/tabulasrasas
Summary: Hard living, strange lives.
Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)
Kudos: 16





	Boy of Bones and Dragons

_It is midnight—_ the boy wakes in the middle of the night and holds himself and then his mother close. He is weak, unlucky, and yet he breathes fire. The boy is too young to be alive, too young to know love. 

_It is the ninety-fifth year—_ the boy refuses to wake up. When he closes his eyes he sees a multitude of colors, and that is not a blessing. At moments, clouds flood the skies and paint him blue. When he falls, the universe dots across his skin, building constellations. He is terrified. 

_It is a young-man's war—_ the boy startles and cries and begs for salvation. He is too weak for her, to weak for himself, as well— rain showers over him, yet it does not wash away the stains of his face. For what purpose is a father, if he brings you to your knees? What does he ask of a child? Not a child, no. A warrior dies in the earthen lands, and his fate was struck into stone, carved with the same knife. 

_It is a curse of boyhood—_ the boy wants to escape his own skin. He is young, but he is also old. Kisses drape his skin, mottled and ugly and alive, men and women too old for him, too young for him. He wants to escape this madness, and he refuses to press blue into his skin. 

_It is the spirits' sighs—_ the boy throws water at this girl across the seas. He wakes up this time with her name on his lips and is terrified, bone-deep. Hatred runs through his veins, and he is a survivor. The water girl is not his, and he is not his own. Hard living, strange lives. 

_It is the sound of the heart—_ the boy tells his own story about loss which fractures at the bottom of the ocean. Her fingers touch his face and press bruises into his skin that turn gold to the touch, but which sing blue. He leaves of his own volition. 

_It is the mistakes of youth—_ the boy knows the girl with knives is not hit, does not fit amongst his cavernous heart. He knows passion, not love. He knows to want, not need. He knows of nothing he can have. 

_It is the dragons' cry—_ Zuko learns many things under the blue dragon's care, as their minds meld. He learns about love, and peace, and that the water girl is striped across his skin. He denies fate because there is nothing to be done. 


End file.
